Abstract and Key Words

Abstract: This paper aims at analyzing the necessity of the disillusion of American dream through the main characters in The Great Gatsby. As the masterpiece of Fitzgerald, the novel, The Great Gatsby, reflects the disillusion of the 1920s American dream; it reflects a vivid social background of the development of western land of America; and it also reflects the deep thinking of the American dream. The novel uses the vivid characters and their unique personality to support the theme of the novel: the process of the decline of the American dream, at the same time to reflect the social background of the 1920s to us again. This paper concludes that by analyzing the main characters in the novel, it is clearly demonstrated that there is a necessity of the disillusion of American dream.

Key words: disillusion of the American dream; The Great Gatsby; the main characters; necessity

摘要：本论文旨在通过对小说《了不起的盖茨比》中主要人物的分析指出美国梦幻灭的必然性。作为菲茨杰拉德的杰作，小说《了不起的盖茨比》反映了二十世纪二十年代美国梦的幻灭；展示了美国西部发展的生动社会背景；同时也表现了作者对美国梦的深刻思考。小说通过栩栩如生的人物及其独特性格来烘托主题：美国梦破灭的过程，同时将二十世纪二十年代的社会背景一一展示给读者。论文通过对小说人物的分析，清晰地论证了美国梦幻灭的必然性。

关键词：美国梦的幻灭；《了不起的盖茨比》；主要人物；必然性

1.    Introduction
1.1 Introduction to Francis Scott Fitzgerald
Francis Scott Fitzgerald was an outstanding writer in the 1920s in the literary world and was one of the most talented writers in the history of American literature. The time he lived in was regarded as the “lost generation”.  His works reflected America's WWI on American domestic social environment, including the traditional moral changes of bourgeois and the depressed spiritual world of “the lost generation”. Fitzgerald named this particular time as “jazz era”, and he was called “Jazz Era Poet Laureate”. The Great Gatsby was recognized as his most outstanding work, which was the classic work about the American dream.
1.2 Introduction to the Great Gatsby
The novel is told by a young man named Nick in the first person. Nick, appearing as a vagrant who is always looking for spiritual home from the Midwest hometown to New York, he gets acquainted with his neighbors, Gatsby, that is the protagonist of this book. And he understands the inner emotion of Gatsby. The young officer Gatsby is born in an ordinary farmyard in Midwest. He is handsome, intelligent and filled with good dreams.